Grads' Pay Reaches `Wow-level'

CAROL KLEIMAN THE WORKPLACE

June 26, 2000|CAROL KLEIMAN THE WORKPLACE

Here are some changes, and some things that never change, in the world of work.

Wow! Wow!: The job market is so good for new college graduates with technical skills that many are getting starting salary offers that the National Association of Colleges and Employers in Bethlehem, Pa., describes as "wow-level."

Computer science majors are being offered $48,695 annually, up 8.5 percent from last year; electrical/electronic engineering grads, $47,692, up 7.9 percent; and computer engineers, $46,739, a 6 percent increase. Luckenbaugh also calls some of the increases "nose-bleed level."

Bringing about change: Robert C. Watson of Lisle, Ill., a conference manager for a hotel, asks if "anyone is on a crusade to make it illegal for potential employers to ask candidates for their salary history? If it's illegal to ask if you're married or have children, why shouldn't salary history also be protected? I believe it's a privacy issue." He also wants to know why employers ask for a record of your previous earnings in the first place.

I don't know of any existing crusades, but if you start one, sign me up. As to why employers ask your salary, I am pragmatic enough to believe they ask solely to pay you as little as possible and to put you at a disadvantage in salary negotiations. It certainly isn't to help you.

Some things never change: Luis Fernandez, a lawyer who lives in Madrid, Spain, read a recent column in which I pointed out that today many working families depend on grandparents for backup care. "There's nothing new in this," Fernandez says. "This has been our old Hispanic family tradition for the last two millenniums: We needed our grandparents' help 2,000 years ago, too."

The tradition continues in households worldwide. And it's big in my house, too.